The present invention relates to a method of automatically sorting thin sheet articles, particularly securities, bank notes, and the like, wherein the individual sheets are withdrawn one after the other from a stack, tested according to different criteria, and assigned to given categories on the basis of the test.
German Published Patent Application (DT-OS) 2,446,280 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,420, discloses a bank-note sorter with which large quantities of bank notes of a predetermined value and of predetermined currency can be tested as to whether they are still usable for circulation or are to be withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. Bank notes of a different currency or of a different value are recognized as being invalid and rejected.
To perform these sorting operations, the bank notes, supplied by the banks in packets of 100 and with revenue stamps affixed thereto, are manually freed from the revenue stamps, placed into an input station, fed from the stack, tested, and placed into different stackers according to their nature.
To be able to reconstruct any irregularities in a packet at a later time or to assign any faults in the packet to the associated revenue stamp on which the bank from which the packet comes is marked,
1. the packets of 100 bank notes are separated in the input station of the sorter by means of so-called separating cards; PA1 2. the revenue stamps are provided with machine-internal information during the manual removal of the revenue stamps, and are entered into a mechanical, serial store in the sequence in which they are processed, and PA1 3. the machine-internal data of the revenue stamp is recorded on a magnetic strip of the associated separating card (only packet number in hopper). PA1 the packet number of the entered stack, PA1 the number of invalid bank notes (false currency, false value), and PA1 with the aid of binary information, an indication as to whether the pass could be completed without irregularities, are additionally marked on the separating card.
By reading the data on the separating cards and finding the revenue stamps, the reconstruction of packets is thus possible in principle. To largely automate the sorting process,
After the sorting, during which the non circulable bank notes were provided with a corresponding imprint, the bank notes, collected in stacks of 100, are transported with a conveyor belt to a revenue-stamp-affixing station where new revenue stamps are affixed to the stacks and where the stacks are put into circulation again or eliminated according to nature. Although the sorting process, carried out only manually so far, is considerably automated in the known sorter, the latter has a few essential disadvantages.
For example, by the sorting into "invalid, non-circulable bank notes" and "circulable bank notes", automatic processing is possible, but in view of the expensive manual preparatory work, the inadequate documentation, and the very expensive revenue stamp assignment, only a facilitation of individual partial steps of the sorting process can be achieved with this known sorter. Automation of the separate bank-note processing is not possible, however.
For instance, the complicated removal of the revenue stamps and the storing of the revenue stamps still entail considerable personnel expenditure because of the manual preparatory work and the expensive packet reconstruction.
The provision of separating cards makes it possible to keep the input packets separated in the input stack, but the preparatory work necessary therefor and the subsequent processing of the separating cards unnecessarily complicate the sequence of operations in the individual phases, which is particularly disadvantageous in those cases where the usual sequence of operations is interrupted by some mechanical or personnel error.
Since the bank-note packets to be sorted may contain counterfeit bank notes in addition to incorrect bank notes (false value, etc.), and since such counterfeit money cannot be detected by the known sorter with certainty, that sorter, besides still requiring much personnel for the processing of the bank notes, involves a factor of uncertainty which does not allow bank-note sorting by that known sorter alone.
Another bank-note sorter which is known from German Published Patent Application (DT-OS) 2,328,126 and with which the bank notes are to be tested for circulability and sorted without assignment to the revenue stamps, is, according to the specification, capable of detecting counterfeit bank notes, but apart from the general statement that the test results are evaluated with electronic equipment, that application gives no technical teaching with which the bank-note sorting could be made largely independent of manual operations. In addition, the sorter has no safeguards whatsoever which could detect or prevent any fraudulent manipulations by the operating personnel.